Analysis

Law

In 2010, Law against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination was enacted to legalize same sex activities. Under this law, any discrimination to homosexuals is prohibited, people can also change their name and gender on identity cards. However, gay marriage is yet to be a legalized activity. Many gay couples have to marriage in other Latin countries, for example, Mexico.

Government role

With Bolivia official’s opened attitude, different domestic and international human rights organization set up. Basically, Bolivia government is cooperative and responsive to the action of domestic or international human rights organizations. There are some gay right organizations, for example, Adesproc Libertad GLBT, actively mobilizing support for these people.

However, Bolivia government is not fully opened to this issue. Based on the society normal moral codes, the government is rather conservative to further discussion on it. It does not pass the green light to gay marriage. In fact, even the president Morales doesn’t view homosexuals as normal and respective. He said the presence of a normal disease baldness and homosexual men is the consequence of eating chicken. In other words, he truly regards homosexuals as problematic and not normal, which is frustrating the gay community and discourage further discussion on marriage.

Jose María Dí Bello and Alex Freyre is the first gay couple to wed in Latin America legally.
But since it is not legal to marry in Bolivia, they wed in Mexico.

“I do not know much about politics,” he said, sporting vibrant red lipstick. “But I understand that this government is helping us a great deal.”

So what’s next for gay rights in Bolivia? Bernabé hopes the government allows gays in his country to experience the same bliss that’s shared by Dí Bello and Freyre in Argentina.

“Our goal now is to legalize civil unions between people of the same sex since the Constitution specifies that marriage can only be between a man and a woman,” Bernabé said. “We only want the same rights as everyone else. We want to be treated with respect. We are not asking for anything more.” Reference:Edson,Hurtado(2010) ‘Bolivia’s gay community receives constitutional recognition’, InfoSurHoy, 17March,[Online],Available:http://infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/xhtml/en_GB/features/saii/features/society/2010/03/17/feature-02